Early Tuesday evening, it will be available to the public.
The board voted unanimously to release the report 24 hours after giving the Bowmans a first look at the document, prepared by Missoula attorney Elizabeth Kaleva, who was contracted by the board to investigate Jeff Bowman's death.
Superintendent Russell Kinzer handed the Bowmans a copy of the report moments after the 5 p.m. meeting adjourned.
“We know what happened,” Bob Bowman said. “We just wanted to see what the report said.”
If it contains eyewitness accounts from the sons of two other mothers who attended the special board meeting, it will include at least some allegations that coaches knowingly allowed Bowman and one to three other players to practice without having turned in release forms from a physician, that coaches did not immediately respond to the player after he collapsed while running a lap and also forbade his teammates to check on him immediately, and that first-year head coach Bruce Corbett left the field after learning an ambulance had been summoned without ever checking on the boy.
Serra Valentine said those were things told to her by her son Cheyne and other players who were at the practice.
Cheyne and some other players quit the team the next day.
“Our children do want to play football this year and aren't because of insecurity with the coaching staff,” Valentine told board members during a public comment period after the vote. “They have very little or no respect for the coaching staff.”
Averill told Valentine she should put her concerns in writing, and such concerns “are taken seriously” when coaches of all sports are evaluated before it is determined whether they will be rehired.
After the meeting, Valentine said her son indicated to her that Bowman had laid on the ground for at least two minutes before anyone checked on him, and by that time he was suffering a seizure and his jaw had locked up, making it impossible to perform CPR.
When the ambulance arrived, she said, the gate to the field was locked and help was further delayed while someone went to get a key. By the time Bowman was successfully resuscitated after a helicopter arrived from Kalispell Regional Medical Center, she said, it was estimated that Bowman had gone 15 to 20 minutes without oxygen.
Shelly Lubenow said her son, Garrett Pewe, was one of the players who were allowed to practice without having undergone a physical examination. According to Lubenow, her son said coaches asked players to raise their hands if they had turned in the proper paperwork, but did not tell those who didn't raise their hands not to practice.
School officials have said the coaching staff warned players without physicals to sit out the practices.
“It's hard, but this is what we came for,” Troy Bowman said after she and her husband were handed an envelope containing the report. “We will have something to say once we look at it. But we feel this was preventable. We know this was preventable.”
School officials have previously referred questions to their attorney, who was not present at Monday's meeting.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at (406) 319-2117 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)